Calculus and Love
by danielove25
Summary: When Lily needs a math tutor, James is there to lend a hand. How does their relationship progress? T for later chapters
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: so, here's the complete chapter. Sorry it took so long. FYI: I won't be sticking 100 to J.K. Rowling's version of Lily/James and their lives. I'll stick as close as I can without having to obsessively check every single Harry Potter book, though. :) Thanks a million to HGHPlove4ever15 and MsDateman for reviewing & adding me/this story to their favorite lists. I love y'all and really appreciate everyone waiting for me to actually finish the chapter!!**

* * *

"Failing? I've never failed anything! Ever! I cannot be failing Calculus... It's not even a Wizarding class!" Lily Evans stomped around her room, clutching the devastating test in her hand. "This cannot be happening to me... My life is officially over." Lily flopped onto her bed, admitting defeat.

Lily's two best friends (and roommates), Mandy and Christy, glanced at each other, then looked back at Lily.

"Well," said Mandy matter-of-factly. "are you gonna get a tutor or what?"

Lily sighed dramatically. "Do I have a choice?"

Christy honestly replied, "Not really..." After receiving a glare from Lily, she quickly revised, "But you do have a choice in tutors!"

Lily's face brightened slightly as she sat up. "I guess that will be fun. Maybe I can get a cute guy who will fall madly in love with me while helping me pass Calculus!"

Mandy quickly popped her bubble. "Well, actually, Christy was wrong. The only acceptable Calculus tutor is James Potter."

Lily's face darkened surprisingly quickly. "James Potter? That pranking, bullying toe-rag? Why is he the only 'acceptable' tutor?"

Christy chimed in before Lily could take all of her anger out on Mandy. "Oh, my bad. I forgot that little detail. The only other Calculus tutor is Mikey Prume, and he's 11."

Lily flopped back down again. "Just my luck. Out of all the possible subjects to fail at, I fail at the one that only James Potter tutors! My life sucks."

Mandy and Christy sympathized with her for two minutes before returning back to business. "So, are you gonna ask him?"

Grudgingly, Lily muttered, "I guess so. I'll ask him at dinner."

Trying to console her, Mandy mentioned, "You know, James has gotten a lot better. You should give him a second chance."

Lily scoffed. "Yeah, right. As if he could change. Whatever. I'll just suck it up and ask him later."

* * *

James Potter was sitting by the lake, playing with his stolen Snitch. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew (the rest of the Marauders) sat next to him.

"How much do you bet that I can get that girl to give me her number by dinnertime?" asked Sirius, pointing across the lake.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Isn't that getting old, Sirius? Girls are more than conquests, you know."

Sirius laughed. "Sure. And McGonagall's gonna wear pink tomorrow. Besides, it's not my fault. Girls are naturally attracted to my amazing good looks and stunning personality."

James had to snort. "If you mean 'ridiculous' and 'stupid' by 'amazing' and 'stunning'."

Sirius retorted, "Don't be jealous. Just because your dream girl doesn't acknowledge your existence beyond telling you to shut up..."

James had no response. Luckily, Remus intervened. "C'mon, guys. Let's just go down to dinner now."

"Yes! Food!" Sirius shouted. James had to agree.

* * *

Entering the dining room, the Marauders sat down at the Gryffindor table, discussing the various merits of the secret passageways at Hogwarts.

"The one on the third floor is useless--everyone knows about it, including Filch," said Remus.

"Yeah, but it's pretty cozy if you want to go somewhere." Sirius waggled his eyebrows. "With girls."

"Here's a thought," said James. "Why don't you try taking a girl somewhere nice? Then maybe she'll go on more than one date with you."

Sirius thought about this for a second. "Nah. Not worth my time."

Remus sighed and shook his head. "Typical."

Suddenly, Remus turned to James and said, "Look natural and nice."

"Huh?" James only succeeded in looking completely confused.

"Hey James," said Lily. "Ummm... do you think I could talk to you for a sec?" As Sirius snickered, Lily glared at him and added, "In private?"

James nearly fell over trying to get out of his chair as quickly as he could. "S-s-sure," he stuttered.

* * *

Once they found an empty classroom, Lily turned to James. "Okay. This is kinda embarrassing, so I'm just gonna tell you straight out. No laughing, okay?"

Lily took a deep breath. "I'm failing Calculus, and I need a tutor."

James nodded slowly. "And you want me to tutor you?"

Lily looked up and rolled her eyes, her face red. "No, Potter. I brought you to this empty classroom and told you that I was failing Calculus and needed a tutor just so someone could sympathize with me... Of course I want you to tutor me!"

James held his hands up in a sign of surrender. "Okay, okay! My bad. I'm just shocked you want anything to do with me. You realize that I'm going to have to be near you to tutor you?"

Lily sighed. "Yes. I understand."

"Okay," said James. "Just making sure you understand what you're getting into." He flashed her his signature crooked grin. "You know, I only tutor people I like... What makes you so sure I'm gonna tutor you?"

"POTTER!"

"Okay, okay, okay. Just kidding. Do you wanna meet tomorrow at 8 in the common room?"

"Ummm... 8 sounds good, but do you mind if we meet in McGonagall's classroom? I talked her into letting me use it." Lily blushed. "I think this would work out better if we met in a... quieter place."

James couldn't help making one last joke. "Scandalous. Asking me to tutor you just to get me alone..."

Lily's green eyes flashed, and she walked out the door. "I'm not even gonna bother responding to that," she said on her way out.

James only grinned. This was gonna be good.


	2. Chapter 2

Lily was dreading her first tutoring session that night. Sitting in Transfiguration, she was finding it awfully hard to concentrate when her soon-to-be-tutor was sitting across the room, a constant reminder of the horror that was coming. _Why did I have to fail Calculus, of all subjects? Why not Potions? Or History of Magic? Why--_

Her wandering thoughts were interrupted by Professor McGonagall's stern, "And the answer, Miss Evans?"

"Ummm..." stalled Lily, looking down at her notes for some help. Finding only doodles, she guessed, "Yes?"

McGonagall glanced down at Lily's notes--or rather, doodles. "It seems that luck was on your side. Moving on..."

Lily sighed. That had been close. _All right, Lily. Focus. You're not gonna get a second chance..._

* * *

When Transfiguration was finally over, Lily walked out the door, relieved that she had made it through the class without any more incidents. Her relief quickly turned to apprehension once James called her name.

"Evans! Wait up!"

Lily tensed, but turned around. "Yes, Potter?"

"Listen, I need to talk to you about tonight. I can't make 8 o' clock, so can we move it to 8:30?"

Instinctively suspicious of James' motives, Lily questioned, "Why?"

James fidgeted. "I have some stuff to take care of... C'mon, it's only 30 minutes later. Pretty please? With a cherry on top? I'll get on my knees if I have to."

Lily gave in before James had the chance to kneel. "Fine. But don't be late."

James grinned, "Wouldn't dream of it."

* * *

Lily sat in the empty classroom, glaring at the clock. _8:33. Where is he? He's late! Even after we changed the meeting time! _Lily was getting madder and madder as the seconds passed. _Just because he's finally in a position of power, he's taking advantage of me! The nerve..._

Eventually, James walked in through the door, apparently unconcerned that he was 4 minutes late. He didn't see the storm coming.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"

James was surprised. "What do you mean?"

"You're 4 minutes late!"

"Ummm... ok. Chill. You're only late once 5 minutes have passed."

"According to who?"

"The Marauders."

"Oh, and their word is _always_ right." Sarcasm dripped off Lily's voice.

"As a matter of fact, it is." James deftly closed the topic. "Now, do you want to get started or what?"

Lily glared at him, but turned to her book.

Relieved, James pulled up a chair next to her, only a few inches away. "I don't have a Calculus book, so we'll have to share one."

"Fine," Lily clipped off her words, still upset with him.

"Okay, what are you having trouble with?"

Lily blushed, her anger quickly forgotten in the light of this new embarrassment. "Um... everything?"

James laughed, but quickly stopped under Lily's glare. "Oh, you were serious. That's cool. We'll just start from the beginning and take it slow."

He flipped to the first chapter of her textbook. "Let's start with limits..."

* * *

Two hours later, Lily was exhausted but actually understood all of the material that was supposed to be on the next test, which was coming up in 3 days. Grudgingly, Lily acknowledged James. "Thanks Potter. You're a better teacher than Professor Bertop, anyways."

James grinned, "That's a high compliment from the girl who idolizes all teachers. Does that mean you idolize me now, too?"

Packing up, Lily rolled her eyes. "In your dreams."

James held the door open for her as they began walking back to the Heads Dorm.

Stopping before the door to her room, Lily asked, "So, can we meet tomorrow at 8?"

"Actually, I have Quidditch practice until late tomorrow. But the day after works for me."

Lily agreed. "That's fine for me, too. I'll see you later, then."

James wished Lily a good night and walked towards his room. Seeing as how Lily hadn't bitten his head of yet, he considered tonight a success.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry for the super slow updating! Ironically enough, I'm having a lot of trouble with Calculus which means no time for writing. Unfortunately. But one of my resolutions is to be more prompt about this, so let's hope. :) Happy New Year!**

* * *

Lily lay her head down on the table during lunch. She was dead tired because she had stayed up late the night before, reviewing for her session tonight with James--she didn't want to seem like any more of an idiot than she already did.

Mandy and Christy saw Lily fall asleep at the table. Being the best friends that they were, they quickly set to work on pranking Lily. "Potter!" Mandy called, "Get over here!"

"What do you want?" asked James, followed by the rest of the Marauders.

Christy quickly caught on to Mandy's plan. "Here, sit next to Lily, put your arm around her, and wake her up... We all need to see some explosions this morning."

Sirius smirked. "I have a better idea." Before anyone could react, he grabbed a pitcher of ice cold water and dumped it over Lily's head. "Wake up, sleepyhead!"

Lily gasped and got up. "What in the world?" Looking around, she quickly spotted Sirius still holding the pitcher in his hand. "Ooooh, Sirius Black, you are so dead!" Pulling her wand out of her pocket, Lily quickly transformed Sirius' robes into a frilly dress, fit for a princess. "Do you regret it, Black?"

Sirius laughed. "Nope. Your face was epic. Definitely worth wearing a dress through breakfast."

Lily let out a short laugh. "Who said anything about through breakfast? I'm gonna go change out of these wet clothes. Enjoy your dress, Black." And with that, Lily turned and walked out of the Dining Hall.

* * *

Sirius and James both had problems getting Lily out of their head that day.

Sirius couldn't stop planning revenge. He'd have to get Lily back for this one. It was only right.

James, on the other hand, couldn't get the image of a dripping Lily out of his head... her hexing Sirius while her robes were clinging to her, water dripping off her lips as she laughed at Sirius, her fierce green eyes flashing through the drops of water--_Stop it, James! _he commanded himself. _You're not helping anything by thinking about_--he carefully avoided the subject in his head--_it. Focus on getting ready for tonight's lesson. You don't want to screw it up tonight. She has a test tomorrow, and if she fails, she's gonna hate you forever. _

With a sigh, James brought his mind back to Potions.

* * *

That night, in McGonagall's classroom, Lily was having problems.

"What's with chain rule? How do you know when to stop? Or even to start?" Lily was practically having hysterics.

"Ok, Lily. Relax, you'll be fine. Just think about this logically." James scooted closer to Lily, secretly praying that she wouldn't hex him for being so close. Carefully walking through the examples, James patiently re-worked the examples until Lily understood.

"God, I swear, I'm not this stupid. I don't understand why, but Calculus just gets to me." Lily blushed, frustrated and embarrassed by her inability to grasp Calculus.

James cautiously put his arm around Lily, calming her down. "Lily, I would never think that you were stupid. Look, you do understand these concepts. You just psyche yourself out and freak whenever you don't get something immediately. Probably because you're used to getting everything the first time around. Just remember that Calculus is one of the hardest classes you'll ever take."

"Wasn't hard for you," Lily muttered.

"Yeah, well, we all have to be good at something, right?"

Lily looked up at James, somewhat surprised. _What an unexpectedly modest response. Maybe he has changed... No, this is Potter we're talking about. _

Shrugging off her wandering thoughts, Lily sighed and focused back on what James was saying.

"I think reviewing anymore will just mess you up, so let's stop for tonight. Stay calm during tomorrow's test, and if you get stuck, take a step back, breathe, and think about the problem. No pressure, okay?"

"Easy for you to say. You already passed Calculus."

"Which is why I'm such an amazing tutor that's going to help you pass this course. Remember: relax!"

Lily scoffed. "I hope you're as amazing as you think you are. Because I need this grade."

James gave Lily a quick hug. "You'll be fine. I believe in you."


End file.
